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"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10).
Likely you are familiar with the phrase “renew and refresh.” It refers to everything: from a body wash to a spa treatment, from a women’s retreat to a car wax. Oh yes, if you are sitting at your computer right now, how easy it is to press the “refresh” button to make sure that your systems and your emails are up to date and current.
David’s setting was quite different when he first spoke these words. He was broken in grief by his own sinfulness. Recently he had been “found out” for his actions of adultery with Bathsheba and his planned murder of her husband Uriah. What were David’s exact words when confronted with his sin? “I have sinned against the LORD.” Note that he doesn’t use one of God’s many titles in his admission. Rather, David uses God’s personal name, YHWH.
It is only a personal God — who first created our hearts — that can truly create in us a clean heart. It is this very same God who first became so personal that He “breathed into [man's] nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Gen. 2:7) that can breathe into us a new and right spirit.
Restore — yes, that is a computer term too. When we attempt to do that on our keypad, it is our effort to restore what we once had but is now lost, likely through our own errors. It is our hope and prayer that what we once had is only momentarily lost.
God does something so much better! God does, as David prayed, “Restore to me the joy of Your salvation” (Psalm 51:12). That’s the key! This clean and restore doesn’t happen by pushing the right buttons on our keyboard, by using the right product, by doing the right process, or even by taking the right steps. A true and genuine clean and restore comes only from God and His salvation found in Jesus and from trusting in what He has already done.
Valentine’s Day was only a couple of days ago. Your renewed efforts to show love and appreciation to the special people God has placed in your life may already have become forgotten, or worse, become tarnished. Don’t lose hope! Rather, know that we have a God to whom we can come. He alone can truly create clean hearts and renew right spirits.
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